Assisting the older driver - SWOV

Assisting the older driver
Wolffelaar, & Rothengatter, 1991; Maycock, 1997; Quilter, Giambra &
Benson, 1983; Ranney & Pulling, 1990).
Physical abilities that decline as people age are reduced joint flexibility,
reduced muscular strength, and reduced manual dexterity. These age‐related
changes can influence the ability to get in and out of a car, operate the
vehicle, and can influence injury and recovery (Sivak et al., 1995). A
reduction in manual dexterity can also interfere with programming in‐car
driver assistance systems that require coordinated finger movements (Eby,
1999).
4.3.3. Most important lessons from the Human Factors approach
The Human Factors approach tells us that several sensory, cognitive, and
physical abilities decline as people age. However, the age at which declines
start as well as the rate at which these declines continue differ from person to
person. Adjustments to road design and in‐car driver assistance systems can
meet a need if they help the older driver to observe his environment. These
assistive devices themselves should, however, also take the older driver’s
declined sensory abilities into account (e.g., contrasts used on roads and
traffic signs, design of human‐machine interfaces).
4.4. Cognitive psychological frameworks
4.4.1. A description of several cognitive psychological frameworks
Cognitive psychology goes one step further into the minds of people than the
Human Factors approach. Whereas the latter approach focuses on the human
being and his physical and mental characteristics, cognitive psychology
stresses that people interpret the information they receive, and that their
actions are almost always aimed at reaching explicit or implicit goals. As a
result, the cognitive approach is especially suitable for analysing higher
order functions such as problem solving, and decision making. Two
theoretical frameworks that originate from cognitive psychology and are
frequently mentioned in the literature on road user behaviour are
Rasmussen’s skill‐rule‐knowledge framework (1986), and the hierarchical
structure of the driving task as described by Michon (1971). Both frameworks
are described below. A third framework that is discussed below is that of
situation awareness. The concept of situation awareness focuses on the
mental picture that people have of the situation they find themselves in and
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